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Path: utzoo!hoptoad!daisy!wyse!vsi1!apple!bbn!bbn.com!mthome
From: mthome@bbn.com (Mike Thome)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.mac,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor
Keywords: desktop metaphor, graphical interfaces, computing environments
Message-ID: <33865@bbn.COM>
Date: 26 Dec 88 23:36:54 GMT
References: <454@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: mthome@vax.bbn.com (Mike Thome)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 44

In article <454@blake.acs.washington.edu> phaedra@blake.acs.washington.edu (J. Anderson) writes:
>...
>	2) A "Heads-Up" style display system (as I believe they are
>referred to in military parlance) which could be used as a pointer
>device by measuring the angle at which my corneas are in relation to
>the screen using a low-power laser or some similar method.
I think you are thinking of the technology that allows pilots to aim
weapons just by looking at the target...  Actually, this is not usually
done by eye-tracking, but rather, tracking the motion of the whole
helmet - besides the mechanical problems of non-invasive eye-tracking,
your eyes jump around a LOT, especially when looking at pictures (i.e.
icons?)  On the other hand, head-tracking devices are available now -
even for micros. There used to be (not sure if they're still around) a
company selling just such a device as a mouse replacement (for the Mac?)
based on a head unit that looked much like a pair of lightweight
headphones.
>	3) A keyboard with LCD or similar technology key caps, so that
>not only What-I-See-Is-What-I-Get but What-Button-I-Push-Is-What-I-Get
>(Note: If there are any system designers reading this, READ THIS
>FIRST.  This I would believe to be in the "Realizable Fantasies"
>column, and after countless hours of using cheat sheets to locate
>Control-Alt-Meta-Prime functions, something I would pay good money
>for)
Here here - a veritable dream come true... especially if one could
arrange to not sacrifice the feel of a good keyboard - I dont think I'd
enjoy a flat keyboard under any conditions.

Certainly, if we retain the keyboard at all, we'd not want to ask the
users to need to move thier hands from the keyboard to do anything.
Hopefully the keyboard itself should be designed so that all keys are in
one group and eaily reachable from "home" position (excellent current
examples of this are the Symbolics lisp-machine keyboards).  If we want
to go a little further, a keyboard layout based on ease of use instead of
backwards-compatability with mechanical typewriters would be nice - even
non-planar spacial arrangements (two hemispheres of keys, for instance).

As far as pointing devices go, I'd have no problem operating a small
trackball placed immediately below the spacebar with my thumbs, without
my fingers leaving the "home" row.  Of course, the head tracker seems ok
as long as you don't mind having to put something on to hack.  The only
other current-technology device that comes to mind which doesn't require
moving your hands from the keyboard is the footmouse (or foot-trackball).

-mike thome (mthome@bbn.com)